Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a copier, or a facsimile machine, and a multifunction peripheral, includes a fixing portion that heats and presses a toner image, fixing onto a sheet, and a plurality of paper output trays configured to receive the resultant sheet.
In such an image forming apparatus, the sheet is heated when the toner image is fixed by the fixing portion, and the heated sheet is placed on one of the paper output trays. This causes a problem in that the toner on one sheet is removed by being attached to the back side of another sheet. When a toner container is placed below the paper output tray, a problem arises in that the heat of the sheets in the paper output tray is conveyed to the toner container through the paper output tray, toner in the toner container becomes hot and fuses.
To address this problem, an image forming apparatus may include an exhaust fan on an end in a direction perpendicular to the sheet ejection direction. The exhaust fan sucks air heated by the sheets that eject onto the paper output tray.
However, a substrate or other components are often positioned on the end in the direction perpendicular to the sheet ejection direction, and it is difficult to provide space to accommodate the exhaust fan. Because the amount of airflow is small in locations distant from the exhaust fan, it is difficult to sufficiently increase the efficiency of cooling the sheets.